LC 174 
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.JLIBHARr OF CONGRESS.! 

i -&Hf± ^ 

* f 

{UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.^ 






BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER, 



SATURDAY MORNING, AUGUST 9, 1873. 




CONCLUSIVE ARGT7MEKTIN' OPPOSITION" TO TIM 
SUlESiE— AH ELAIiOBATE PRESENTATION OP 
THE WHOLE SUBJE T— TUB TKCTE FOLIC V OP 
THE GOVERNMENT CONCER4.IKG THE HIOHEB 
ELCCAHON. 

The follow n : la- the Ml report presented by 
President Eliot oi Harvard at the meeting; of tba 
National Educational Association at Elimva, New 
York, on luesday last, brief mentio i of wbick 
wasiradeiii our telegraphic despatches. 

Tb a report b s three parts,— first; an accoitot of 
what this association has done about a nacnual 
university since 1809; secondly, au examination of 
uio tills on the subject which were brought be- 
fore Congress in 1812, and lastly, a discussion of 
the uue i oliey of our government upon this urit- 
ui. At the conclusion oi an address on "The Pro- 
aiess of TJi.iversitv Education." delivered oy Dr„ 
Joljn V/. Hojt, of Wisconsin, before the uatiouil 
teacher's association at I'renton, New Jersey, aa 
tne Will of August, 1809, the folio wing resolution 
w as unai.ini(iUbly auoiiieu :— 

Jlexolvtd, That, ro the opinion of this association, 
a gieafc Ameiicjn university is a leadiug wj,nt of 
Ametkan education, and that, in order to con- 
tribute to the early establishment of such an insti- 
tution, the pre sidtnfc of this association, acuiiiv in 
ccncirt wi'h the piesnleut of the national euperin- 
ti'iiiiti'is' association, is hereby requested to a.i- 
poini a committee consisting; of one member from 
ia< h of the States, and ,if which Dr. J. W. Hjyt of 
Vt'ii-L.insin shail be chairman, to tatce the whole' 
matter into consideration, and to uiike such re- 
i port thereon, at the next annual eo.iveu- 
unii of said association, as sua'll seem to be 
demanded by the interests of the councry. 

ibis cimmiuee was duly appointed, but dni. 
BMhine whatever ruling the year 1869-70. Never- 
theless, ihe chairman, acting m the name of the 
i ci n nnitip, presented at the Cleveland meeting, in 
Ai^ini, 1870. v\hat was called "a preliminary re- 
tell," and asked that the committee inlg'bt Lave 
moictme. Ibis preliminary report describes ia 
eltv aud language the "leaning offices of a true 
university, - ' couipaies our existing institutions 
with Eihopear universities, paints a glowiug nte- 
luie lit the future oi the United states, sets forth 
v\ilb enihmiaim wbat a great, university would do 
lor ibe cuuntiy, avoids all embarrassing ostitis, 
loaves U.e precise character of the institution, its 
loiatun its ci institution and mode of government 
I fjUite ui denied, and assumes nolv this — that tiiore 
slumla be ore great central institutiou, and chat 
oiinding?andendc*Jtt**'*ttrereot the pri- 
vate ciiicen. the State asia the general govern- j 
>- : '.rune. It passed by all matrers liltejy 
iggest objections, ana caiieii for no specific 
actionuDaieier on the part of the association; 
the ebanman alone was responsible for ic, aud' 
it boie only bis signature. Ot course the report 
was accepted and' the request for more time wa,s 
i K rai ttd. 

At the St. Louis meeting of the Na- 
liei.al Educational Association, in August, 
1671, Br. Hovt and a minoriiy of the com media 
aj.; .i intcd in 18C9 niesenrert a second report. This 
jtiorl aeain avoidsalldetailsof wbattlie proposed 
li.Liiiuiion shoum be and where it should be, but 
srys in jzei.tral terms that it should be enmpre*- 
Limive, high, free, »ujitr,immel:ed by oonsidera- 
; lioisol Biction . iVai tv or creed, rico, and so co- 



oidmaied with the other institutions of the c iuii- 
tr.\ asiuii" wavocourlict with them. Further, tawr 
sreond rcpoii defines in some measure wiiic the 
i.iehroii arv repo-t vaeoely spoke of as tlic ueees- 
taiyo opei anon of the euizen, the State aud the- 
SCLeial government. H appears in the second re- 

]crttnat "Ihe original endowment will uee.l 

tol e lurniEbedby the government, and Cangress 
nmsttbeiefore determine the general terms aui 
c millions upon which the institution shall be ad- 
ministeied"; that "proper authorities in the sev- 
eral Slates may have a voice in its minaarement," 
ai d "that, individual citizens aud associations of 
cnireu:- should be cordially 'nvited to emiow such. 

tie) ai iments as shall most eolist their symn-i- 

ihies." ihe icpoit then presents some ariu'mauts 
in iavcr el the right of Congress to endow a am— 
versiiy, anil says thai" the idea of a national uni- 
versin "is in perfect birmony with the policy aa.l 
practice of ihe government" and that "it remains 
but to determine the meau3 best calculated to se- 
cnie the adoption of the most judicious plan for 
ttoii.otitutiou, and ^o insure the congressional 
and other aid necessary to the full success of the 
enterprise. 1 ' Thereupon the committee reeomroeact 
tl at "there be ra.sedanew and permanent commit- 
tee ol Irss numbers than the present -sav fifteen— 
.... to be known as the national university com- 
u itiee," "chat a quite limited number of tnemDers 
thereof should be a quoium for the transaction of 
business at any regu:aiiy called meeting, and that 
a majority shall have power to supply . . .. vacan- 
cies... •.." 'Ihe concluding sentence of the report 
is as follows- "A committee of this character 
would le able, in the first place, to concentrate 
ti.e I est thought of the country upon the various 
impol fart questions involved lu the perfection of 
a plan for the institution ; and, secondly, to m ir- 
shal the stiength of the country iu systematic and. 
f. ftertive support. of the measure, wheu at last for- 
mally brought to the attention of Congress." Tills 
npoit was signed by a littie less than half of the 
meint ers of the original committee. The report 
was accepted, and the proposed permanent com- 
miltee of fiiieen was appointed. ■ 1 ao not find that 
the number of members of this committee which 
fhtulo constitute $ quorum was fixed by the asso- 
ciation. By taking this action at the St. Louis 
meeting, the association showed that it enter- 
tained the idea cf a single dominant university for 
the country, and contemplated, without disappro- 
bation, tne establishmei t theieof by the general 
government, ana through its committee the asso- 
ciation undertook— first, to prepare a plan for 
such an institution, and, secondly, to urge Vaa 
plan, when prepared, upon Congress. 

The 1 eimauer.t committee appointed in Au just, 
1871, under these circumstances had serious wort 
to do and grave responsibilities to bear. Win* 
has it done? The members were ail very busy 
mtn, and thev were ecattered over the country 
fit m aiassaehusctts to Oregon aud from Minneso- 
ta 'o Louisiana. Several of them were appointed 
without their knowledge ana consent. The natu- 
ral cmsequences have followed. There has never 
been a meeting of the committee cimpetent ti 
transact business. .Nine of the gentlemen whose 
names were announced at St. Louis as members of 
this committee have informed me that they never 
attended a meeting of the committee; two more 
mtmLeis never attended any meeting excepts, 
biuttne m a hotel parlor at St. Louis shortlv after 
the C\mmittce wasuamed.a meeting which could, 
not possibly have been competent to transact busi- 
tess. Of the other four members, one is the chair- 
man, two have been long abBent lrom home and. 
" ,1-accessible to my inquiries, and one has 
net answered .my letters. It is obvious 
that as a boay authorized to speak and 
or.c in the name of the National E lucicional Ai- 
Eociation this committee has never h id atuooj mc's 
ixisteme. 1 congratulate the association that it 
is thus far free from all responsibility for what- 
ever may have been done since August, 1871, ab >ufc 
a rational university. The permanent commie 
which ihe association tliou constituted upon this 
suljett was never organized, aud no one lias lial 



[id 



any authority tr> speak in its uaine or in tlie nam9 
of the association. Kolwitnstanrting this state of 
tbirgs, seine not unimportant action wis taken iu 
the spi ii.g of 1872, looking to the establishment of 
a national university by Congress. Two bills tu> 
establish a national university were broug.it into 
ihe S< nate, one oi which was drawn by Di. J. W. 
Hoyt of Wisconsin, the chairman of tlie coinnit- 
tee appointed at St. Louis, and was presented at 
his 11 quest by Senator Sawyer of South C U'olina. 
Oi this bill, so well informed a peisonasOener.il 
Eat* n, commissioner of education, himself a mem* ■ 
Ler of the St. Louis committee, savs in a letter to 
me, "It is the one, as I understand the facts, which 
uaslavored by the committee appoiute I oy the 
National Educational Association, of which Dr. 
-J. W. Hoyt ot Mauison, Wis., is cnairman." There 
is 10 doubt that this was the common impression: 
among persons who knew anything about the pres- 
entation of the bill brought m by Senator Sa.wrer 
on the 20ih of May, 1872. ft behooves tlie associa- 
tion to understand how this impression was pro- 
clued and what grounds there were for such an 
opinion. Dr. Hoyt has beeu for the pa8t four 
years chaiiman of a committee on a national uni- 
versity appointed by the National E lucattonal As- 
sociation, ano the action of the association in 1871 
nade him chairman of a peimaneut committee, 
abhi ugh the committee has never met. In that 
capaci ty he vrote letters in the winter of 1871 72,, 
to a large number ot persons interested in ejuca- 
1ion, asking their opinions and advice about a na- 
tional university, and enclosing a drait of a bill 
to establish isucb an institution. These letters 
undcub edly got more attentiou from tbe persons 
aodirssed because, in many cases at least, they 
were written on Ihe paper of the bureau of educa- 
tion at Washington, and were sent i ut from that 
t nice with tnvt lopes for the free transmission of 
the replies laek to tbe bureau. Dr. Hoyt has also 
talked in the course of the last four years wita a 
considerable number of persons professionally 
cmeerned with education upon the subject ot a 
rational university, and bas received from tuern a 
mass of suggestion-and opinions in great variety. 
Among the persons so Consulted by htm, either ! 
oialiy or m wilting, were most of the members of 
the committee named at St. Louis. Three or four 
of the committee felt a real interest in the sub- 
ject and devoted some attention to it, but they 
never had the advantage of common consultation 
and all then- suggestiong were fitered through 
the mind of the chaiiman. Ihe bill brought into 
the Senate by Senator Sawyer was theri|tore the 
work of a private citizen , having a certaiu* indorse- 
ment fi cm this association, who consulted such ■ 
peierns as be thought best to consult, and took as 
much of their advice as he liked. It was in no prooer 
sei se the work of this association or of any com- 
mittee thereof. The impression that it was favored 
by a committee of this association has ouly this 
warrant, that parts of it commended them -elves 
to certain gentlemen who were named in 1871 on a. 
committee which was never organized, aad wtt» 
therefore had only their individual opinions to ex- 
press. 1 have been thus particular in describing; 
what has taken place in regard to the project for a 
national university which was started in this asso- 
ciation in 1869, because, as I have examined the 
matter,! have thought that partly through easy goo* 
naiuie, and partly through that haste in the trans- 
action of business which is almost unavoidable in 
such a large assemblage as this, coming tigathef 
1or two or three days once a year, the association 
Lad iun a serious risk of being placed in a false 
position before tbe public upon a subject of mu;h 
importance to American education. It has seemed 
to me that the association would do well to be cau- 
tious about constituting permanent committees, 
and abc lit passing general declaratory resolutions, 
particularly if the resolutions convey a lecoarmen- . 
nation to some superior power, as to Congress, a 
State legislature or the public at large. 

1 now pass to the seco .d part of my subject, ait 
examination of tbe two bills to establish a national 
university, which were presented in the Senate in. 



the ~ spriii" of 1872. These two bills are tenta- 
tive plans for oreating a crowning univer- 
sity, richer, better and more comprehensive 
than any existing Institution, and under the 
patronage of the general government. They are 
tbe woik of private individuals only, and nothing 
has thus far come of them; but they are betore 
the c< untry as having been read twice and refer- 
red to the committee on education and labor ia 
ihe Senate of the United States. In the bill [.re- 
sented bv Senator Howe ot Wisconsin March 25. 
1872. the "different faculties of the proposed uni- 
versity are all specified to the number of ten, and 
tbe professorships in each faculty are desiguatel 
in detail, except in the faculties of military sci- 
ence and naval science. Tbe same authority whtcn 
establishes a faculty or a professorship can of 
course abolish either at any moment, and so get 
rid of unpopular incumbents. The president of 
the university is to be appointed by the president 
of the TJnitea States, with the onsent of tha 
Senate. The heads of the teu faculties are to be 
annotated by the president of the university, with, 
the consent of the Senate of the United States. 
The president and the heads of faculties consti- 
tute an executive senate ot the university. Pro- 
fessors are to be appointed and may be removed 
bv this university senate, and private teachers are 
.to be licensed by the same body. The president 
s to have the same salary as the' Chief 
Justice of the United States, and the heads of fac- 
culties are to have the salary of a judge of the dts- 
uict court of the United States. The places are 
desuable.soi'ar as pay, patronage and oaspica- 
ne=s go ; they would be desired by a great number 
ot incompetent people; the more so because these; 
eleven efficers would never be brought, like a pro- 
fessor, to any public test of their capacity. Toere 
is no reason whatever to suppose that the appoint- 
ments would be made on any better method than, 
that which now prevails in United States custom- 
houses and post-offices. We are disgraae'.ully ha- 
bituated to custom-house "rings" and post-ofuoo 
"ill gs"; last wiuter the ne.vpapers talked much 
of an aaritulinral college "ring." Tbe spectacle 
of a national university "ring" would be even less 
edilymg. There is, indeed, in the bill a futile at- 
tempt to make the tenure of ofllce of the presi- 
dent of the university the same as that of tun 
judges of the Supreme Court of the United Si ices. . 
IhtSuprtme Court, however, was not established 
ly toigiess, but by the Constitution, and th» 
judges ol that court are consequently out of the 
reach of Congress; the president of a university 
established bv act of Congress would not oe. Toe 
bill gives no' security whatever that all tue ap- 
pointments m the university w.ubl not be of th? 
naiuit of political appointments. Ibis is a tatah 
deiect in aov cougresstouat bill to ^establish a uni- 
versity, so long as the principles of appointment 
to Uuiied Siates offices and the tenure of tttise 
cfLces tona.il what tbey now are. The only teaure 
ol cfti«e which is ht lor a teacher is 
tbe tenure during good behavi or ani 
competency; and thiB is the only teiure 
which will secure the services of com;rj;eat 
protestors in colleges and universities. ' J -' tl3 ' fc8 " 
tuency oi the elections of teachers is a ve;y baa 
leaiuiem our puulic school system. Pertciueuoe 
of tenure is necessary to make the position of a 
teacher one of dignity anil luelepen'Jeiioe. Youa * 
men oi vigor ano capacity will not enter a profes- 
sion which offers no money prize-, unless t.ney ace 
ii duced bv Us stability ami peace tulmjss, an J by 
ihe social consideration which attaches to It. Ihe 
tjsitm which prevails in most of our large oliie3 
-id towns, of electing tbe teachers in the pajiie 
schools at least as often as once a yea 1 , isiioon- 
sistmt wi'h this digi.itv, penceiumess an I const 1- 
nation, unless a trmlv established custom of re- 
electing ii« uni bents converts the constantly recur- 
ring elections into mere formalities. We must all 
bitterly t)Pi lore the mortifying fact that for mire 
thou a i^ei.eiation neither dignify, peacefubiesa 
[COSIINTJED ON FOURTH PAGE,! 



(CONTINUED FEOM FIRST PAUE.l 
nor social cons {deration has attachei to any ap- 
BKrtntmei t in the civnservice of the United States. 
ihe man appointea has sometimes adorned his of- 
fice, but the cilice has Dever adorned the man. 
Until the service of the United States becomes, 
WKWgh a complete reform, at least as respectable 
S»d secure as the service of a bauk, 
an insurance company, a manufacturing cor- 
poration or a railroad company, not to 
speak of college and academy corporations, Con- 
gress cannot establish a university \vh;ch will 
comtnand the respect of educated Americans or 
win the confluence of the country, unless the ap- 
polutiDc power lor the university is made abso- 
lutely independent of all political influence. So I 
tar fr< m doing this, the bill before us provides no 
effectual burner whatever against political ap- 
pointments. In several sections of the bill there 
is a provision that for certain appointments cer- 
tain specified clnsses of persons shall "receive the ' 
preference"— a provision of no binding or eflective 
folce whatever. There is only one really erfreisnt 

§ revision oi this character in the bill presented by 
cnator fiowe, and that one might reasonably 
give serious ccncern to persons who live iu the 
•|a„,., f , rit8j foits. arsenals, navy yards and light- 
houses of the United S'ates. It is provided m sec- 
tion 16 that after the year 1880 graduates of the 
national university m medicine and surge* y "shall ; 
alone be emitled to practice medicine and surgery 
in any Terntoiy ovei-wbtch the United States shall ! 
have exclusive jurisdiction." 

I shall lately mention some of the minor 
faults of Senator Howe's bill. To an ex- 
perienced college official, the following ue- ! 
scnption of tne qualifications for a Imission 
to the uuii ers ty 3eems absurdly vague, "a good i 
moral chat aoter and such intellectual attainments 
as aie indicated 1 y graduation at the colleges, u n- 
Teisities, at d best class of high schools, as estab- 
lished by law in the several Stales of the United 
States." With tne author of this bill the four 
years of study which generally come between 
graduation at a bigh school and graduation at a 
college count for nothing at all. Universities and 
high schools are spoken of as equivalent institu- 
tions, there may be States in tbts Union in which 
this classification is essentially correct; but there 
certainly are rot a lew States iu which it is cou- 
3i icuously u-exact. 

The bill pruvi' es that professors snail receive 
salanes vaiyn gfrom $1000 to ¥2500 a year, and 
thateath ptolessor may also exact a fee of ten 
doilais a venr Horn each studeut attending his 
course. Under this system the professors of popu- 
lar subjects ujignt thrive; but 1 fear that the pro- 
fessors of Oiiental philosophy, scholasti- 
cism, Sclavonic languages, the Coptic lau- 
gua«e, ecclesiastical law, and similar , 
lather remote subjects, would starve. 
Neither students nor teachers in this country kite 
ihe fee system ; it has worked well in Germany, 
but has never been domesticated here except in | 
medical schools, where it has done a great deal of 
bairn. It creates a disagreeable money relation 
between teacher and student, and introduces into 
a facility illiberal contention. By section 18 of I 
this con'ptthenstve bill, the Military academy is 
removed irom West Point, and so changed as to oe 
inaction H J' ai o isned. This measure seems rather 
too wave to be biougbt in as an incidental part of 
a bill to establish a national university. 

The seventeenth rection. relating to the faculty 
of at'iicukuie, gives countenance to delusions 
which have already done much mischief in tne 
United States and still bid lair to cause further , 
wasted i.ublio au.i private resources. Trie first 
of these delusions n the model farm, ibe model 
faini li-e the m<K.el machine-shop, is almost unt- 
vrisilliv a mo. el oi nothing but nisapplied labor, 
i imiHiliiicteu expenmentation and unprovable ln- 
1 vertmcut. It can be useful to the young agricul- 
turalist only as a warning; it can teach hi,u how 
to snend miney, but not bow to make money on a 
faim The other mischievous delusion to which I 
! wish to call attention is that the labor of a young 



sti.ee ccmpens.ation for his board, lodging, cloth- 
ing and tuiticu. All such arrangements are chari- 
ties injudiciously disguised iroin the recipients. 
It is this dn-guise which makes the general method 
So w ell litieo to breed shirks. There lurks iu all 
devices of this sort the notion that study aod 
thinking are not i hysicul exertions; so that after 
piolouged fatuuy a man may be just a< fit for phys- 
ical laLi r as if he bail not worked with his braius. 
This is a profound mistake which has real danger 
for conscientious and ambitious youth; such young 
peitons iua\ cas ly be betrayed by this lalse opin- 
iimjlno disastrous overexertion. What is called 
Miev.tal labor is really the most exhausti.ig, con- 
tinuous physical exeitlon which men can make, 
although the sense of fatigue from an excess of 
what l- caned train-work is generally not s > irre- 
sistible at the moment as the fatigue caused by too 
much hammering, hoeing or walking. Se :tion i\ of 
this bill niovidea "that tne seat of the university 
shall be at the cabital of the United States." 1 
reserve this point lor discussion in conoectun 
with the other bitlto which 1 now invite your at- 
tention. ^ 

The important feature in the bill presented in 
the Sei.ate by Senator Sawver on the aoth of May, 
1812, is the mode in which its author euueavore I to 
pioviue a government for the university which 
would have some chance of being free from polit- 
ical influences; or in other words to deprive the 
government oi the United States of all power over 
the unit eisiiv tr. nj the moment of its establish- 
ment, except 'of course the power to abolisti it. 
By this bill the gn\ eminent of the university is 
vested in a board of regents, numbering nfty-hve 
persons, a council of eoucation numbering seven- 
teen peiBOLS, a council of faculties which iuclu le3 
all the executive officers of the university and all 
professors, and a general council of the univer- 
sity, "composed of all members of the board of 
jegents, council of education, council of faculties 
and all graduates of the university of five years' 
siftuumg." ihe last named body, which lu tbe 
etui se of years wi uld become very numerous, has 
only power to make recommendations to the otner 
fccaias. Ihe ciuiie- of the council of faculties are not 
prescribed with distinctness. The real governing 
bodies are the board of regents and the co.meit o£ 
education. It is provided "that the board of re- 
gents shall consist of one member from each State 
of the United States to be appointed by the gover- 
nor thereof with the advice and coussut of the 
chiel justice and the superintendent of public in- 
struction, or other like officer, of his State; five 
intmlieis from the country at large to be appoint- 
ed by the Presiuent of the United States, with the 
advice and consent of the Chief Justice, commis- 
sioner of education and chief officer of the univer- 
sity and the lolloiving members ex-officio, to wit, 
the Chief Jui- tice of the United States, commis- 
sioner of education, commissioner of agriculture, 
commissioner of pateuts, superintendent of the 
loast suivey.supeiintendent of the naval obser- 
vatory, secretary oi the Smithsonian Institution, 
president of tne National Academy of Sciences, 
nretaideut of the N alio . al educational Association, 
Dissident of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, president of the American 
Philological Association, president of the 
Aneticati Social Science Association and the 
chief officer of the university, fifteen to be 
a quorum." The members representing 
States ai e to serve six years, and the members at 
I large ten years. 'Ihe specified duties of the re- 
gents Pie "to enact laws for the government of the 
university) to elect the officers thereof, to dster- 
I mine the general conditions of altnission to the 
university', and to confer appropriate degrees." It 
is expiessly declared that "no faculty snail be or- 
ganized, no chair created, -~ 



salary determine I, 



and no professor appointed or removed without 
I the approval of the board of regents." With so 
i large an organization to direct, and such lmport- 
' ant powers to exeicise, the hoard of regents would 
meed to have several meetings a year. Two meet- 
ings a year would obviously be the least possible 



stliness of 

__mbers 'scattered all 

over the count! y! need not be enlarged upon. It is 



number. The cumbrousness and the 
so large a boaiu, with its 



?*r£? i ac thK autno1 ' of the bill did not expect 
the members oi the board of regents to attend its 
lmceu.es with much constancy, lor lie S4 
Quorum which is only one more than a quarter of 
tfce Lumber of members. To name a smill 
quorum lor a larse bo&y of Trustees re- 
getts or direct, ra, is to countenance that ne-leet 

I ZLntuuwF n„ '. he part ot - ,ue supposed ma'alg- 
ere of public and private inatituiions of crusl 
| charity or education ivlucb has been so freiueot v 
| 8Ld so grievou-sly illustrated during the past few 
years. "The i nnciple upon which the board" 
' chiefly made up is a veiy questionable one. Wuv 
eboui.i there He one rneinber iroin each State iu 
the governing board , f a university, about which 
there is to le nothing sectional, sectarian or parti- 
san? Such a priuciple of local representation im- 
plies that Ma„,e and Oregon, Minnesota and Fiori- 
na inav have d.flerenc interests in the institution. 
•The diflerent Slates of the U. ion may easily have 
different int. rests ab ut customs, interna taxes 
SKto"ft„ , ^ ,1 ? ia *! eanalB ' c « m ">erce and mail 
rentes; so tbatour legislative bodies are naturally 

h»t7h.'re n i^^ P .' i '- C,p l e of !" eal ^presentation* 
but the le is no r asou for a similar const rution of 
the government of tbe university. Pnilolo^v his- 
tory, philosophy, science and mathematics are the 
same in Massachusetts and California. The pro- 
lesson hips might as well be divided among the 
uibereii .States, as the places iu the board of re 
gents luaee.., it this vicious principle were ad- ' 
mmed.ro the constitution of the chtef gov! 
Z mi A ,^ arJ . . we should fully expect 
to see the university offices parfelled out 
among the different States just as P rfoiitical ap- 
pointments now are. There are twelve et-officL 
imjmteisofthe board of regente,noneof whom iu 
all prooabimv, could give the smaller attention 
fto this function iof governing a university. Tike. ' 
■for instance, the chief Justice of the United 
States, tbe commissioner of education, ihe super- I 
Ji!i C J™-?k 0r the coast survey and the secretary of i 
the Smithsonian Institution; each of these officials I 
is lully occupied with the regular work of his own 
proper office. It 13 an impofition npou these ee™° 
tlemen to make them devote time and thou -hi to 
£w^f V U « 6 ' ly u,stinct from their official em- 
ployment as tie management of a university; and 
it they are not to give time and tbouaht to the uni- 
versity, tbe public are imposed upoii by toe list of 
ex-qffioio nif mbers of the board of regents. I know 
no surer « ay to procure an inefficient b>dvof 
trustees lhan to constitute it in good part of offi- 
cials who will pi ebably have but a slender interest 
in the matter of tbe trust, and whose reonlar 
duties leave them little time and strength 
for extianems functions involving labor i 
and responsibility. The author "of the 
bill doubtless perceived that the board 
of regents would be an unwieldy and incompetent 
body ; he therefore contrived a sort of executive I 
committee called the council of education. This 
council cousi- ts of six regents, six members of the 
council of faculties and hve ex-ojflcio members to i 
wit., the cbier officer of the university, commis- 
sioner oi education, superintendent of the I 
coast survey, superintendent of the naval I 
obeervato.y, and secretary of the Smithsonian in- 
stitution. Of this body of seventeen mem uers ten I 
is a quorum, 'this is the working bodv. It is i 
charged, in the language of the bill, "with the or- ! 
Ranizatiou of faculties, the appointment and re- I 
moval of professors and teachers, and, in eeueral, 
with the educational managem<>nt of the univer- ' 
sity" ; but it subsequently appears that in all these I 
things the approval of the board of regents is es 

RPntlUl. lhf> rnlll1tf.il flf Orfnn.ttnn ia ,1..-. t....... 



— r.— -— - n — • — - — -m— ~-. ...v. «. .njj^uuB 10 es- 
sential. Ihe council of education is the boaid 
which would attend to details and prepare the 
business ot the board of regents. It would nave to 
meet very frequently, and as the presence of its 
ac-ojficio members would ordinarily be out of the 

I question, three out of the six regents from 
as many different States would have to 
be called iu to make a quorum. The 

I resident • fficers and professors of the university 
would supuly the other seven members. A board 
thus constituted is an untried experiment; its 

I working wouio be a curious problem. The maj or- 

1 ity of its active members would be professors, 



who would be called upon to advise the rodents 
alout ay auestious of appointment, pay, rank and 
&*™ on y? c ™ ,, ! M ' n » n e t^r colleagues and them- 
selves. Ihe object which the author of this bill 
had in view in devising this elaborate arrange- 
ment of uove. ning boards for his university was a 
laudable one, Lamely, to detach the national '-ni- 
versiiy lr. m tbe national government, but his 
scheme is too novel, complicated an.l unproniisin- 
te commanu the confidence of persons experienced 
in connuctiLg educational institutions. 

♦wKa? s « lal '«?° utras,:w,th the general tenor of 
thiB bill, the fifteenth section gives Senators and 
Kepiesentatives a light to nominate candidates 
ftom then respect ve States or districts for schol- 
arships which secure free tuition for five years 
then by copying the worst feature in the organiza- 
tion ot the military academy at West Point and 
the navai academy at Annapolis, and giving mem- 
bers of Congress another excuse for ne 'lectin*- 
their pr. per legislative functions to busy them- 
selves win patronage. This very objectionable 
section of the bill was orobably intended as a bid 
jor the v. tes of the members of Congress, but it 
is a very small bin, for section 13 pro- 
vides "that instruction shall at all times 
be as nearly free for stuaents as is consistent w.tn 
Ihe income of the university and the best interests 
ot learning. This is a sounding phrase capable, 
like not a lew other phrases in this bill, of widely 
differing const ructions, but it strongly su -rests 
free tuition. F, ee tuitiorin a place oi professional 
. or other high education is always objectionable. 

because it u a perfectly indiscriminate charity • 
when this indiscriminate charity is to be supported 
by national taxation it is doubly objectionable 

Section 14th oi the bill contains the sin'tilar pro- 
visions that "no person shall be admitted tor pur- 
poses of 11 gnlar siuby and graduation who his not 
previously recenco ihe degree of bachelor of arts 
or a deg ee ot" . qual value, from so ne in-icirutnn 
reccgn.zed by th uni ersuy authorities." Toun- 
Atntrt ais do 1 ot get tne degree of bachelor of 
arts.cn the iveia.e, before their twenty-second 
I year. Ou these tcinisthe regular students of the 
new university woul 1 in my judgment be few. ex- 
cept in the professional departments. This pro- 
vision cannot be a serious one; it wa-° probiblyin- 
j tended to quiet the appieheusious of tbe 300nsti- 
1 tutu rs which now give the degree of bach dor of ■ 
aria, and of course it can be repealed ac any time. 
Both the bids u-der discussion rely noon Con- 
gressional grants or appropriations for the maiu- 
1 tenance of the uoiversiy. Senator Howe's bill 
does net unceitake ti ueflue the amount of the 
appropriations required. Senator Sawyer's bi.l 
'grants twenty millions of dollars in the singular 
form of an unncKOtiable certificate of indebted- 
ness of the United Siates, bearing interest at five 
percent, a year. Oue million of dollars a year is 
#iot a large estimate of the annual cost of the pro- 
posed univeisitv, considering the extreme waste- 
fulness which characterizes most government ex- 
penditures. The private incorporated colleges and 
UBiveisities use their scanty resources with the 
greatest poesii le thrift, fueir example is a wnole- 
some 1 lie. I fear that the example of a university 
which tad ■ ne bai.d iu the nation'al treasury 
would not be as salutary. 

Bi tb tbe bills plant the proposed university at 
Washintton, a citv which is the capital ot tu* 
Dnited Stales only 111 the governmental or p .liti- 
cal sei ee. Ihis country has no L mdm, no Paris, 
no Berlin, no Vienna, no Home. We are fortunate 
that there is no single city in which all the activi- 
ties of the nation, commercial, industrial, intel- 
lectual anci governmental, centre. On the Atlantic 
coast are four large cities, each with a character 
aid ltfiuerceof its own; in the northwest ii Chi- 
'cago; on the Ohio is Cincinnati; oi the 
Mississippi is St. Louis; on the Pacifle, 
San Fiancifco. Every one of tne3e looil 
; centies is vastly more important to the 
country thnn Washington, for Wei-hiuirton 13 a 
focus of reitber foreign commerce nor domestic 
trade, neither manufactures, agriculture nor min- 
ing, neither litei ature nor art. Tue climate of the 
city is not veiy healthy, and the presence oi Cou- 
gress and of the hangei»-on of Congress does not 



make tbe city a better place of residence for young 
uu.ii at the forming period of life. There is no 
precedent in Europe tor a single, dominant, na- 
tional university endowed by government, and the 
only one so endowed, and situated at a national 
capital. London is in everv possible sense the 
capital of Great Britain; but the chief universi- 
ties of Great Britain are not in London. Berllu is 
the seat of a Prussian university subsidized by the 
State; but Prussia subsidizes several other univer- 
sities as well. The university of Paris is only the 
largest branch of that single organization of pub- 
lic instruction which spreads all over France, is 
maintained by the government, and preside 1 over 
like the aimy and the navy by a minister. In con* 
tment a) Europe all universities are subsidized by 
government. Such is the custom of those coun- 
tries,— a custom which is certainly not tne out- 
gronthosfree institutions. The leading univer- 
sity is now at Leyden.uow at Paris, now at B>- 
logna, now at Vienna, now at Heidelberg, now at 
Berlin, and now at Leipzig, the stream of students 
fiowiLg fitfully from one place to another. The 
proposed university at Washington wouli bear no 
resemblance whatever to any of these famius 
seals of learning, either in its constitution or its 
surroundings. 

And now let me recall to your minds for amoment 
the second outv which was assigned to the com- 
mittee appointed in St. Louis m 1871. They were 
in thefiist place to prepare a plan for a national 
university, and in tbe second place they were "to 
marshal the strength of the country in systematic 
and eflective support of the measure." What has 
really taken place? In introducing the first bill 
u e have discussed Sei ator H we said, apologeti- 
cally, "1 ought to say by way of explanation tnat 
this bill was not sent to me. It was drawn oy 
seme one, I do not know who, and sent to my col- 
league, and it is at his request that I preseut it." 
In presenting the bill which was supposed to bare 
.the sanction of this a-sociaiiun, Senator Savvy _-r 
said, "I. wish to say in reference to this bill th.it I 
mtioouced it by request. . . .1 do not wish co be un- 
deistood as recommending it." Neither bill was 
supported by anybody in any wav, and neither bill 
has been beard of since it was brought into Con- 
gress until this day. The Senators woo introduced 
them did not imagine lor a moment that auv legis- 
lation would crow out of them. As to cue strength 
of the country being marshalled ineffective sup- 
port of either of these measures, the idea is com- 
ical. Tbe whole proceeding is loose, crude, hasty, 
undignified and unworthy oi the t-ubject. 

I turn next to my third topic, tbe true policy of 
our goveri.ment as regards university instruction. 
In almost all the writings about a uatiou's ujiver- 
sity, and of course in the cvvo Senate bills now 
unoer discussion, there will be toundthe implica- 
tion, if not tbe express assertion, that it is some- 
how the duly ot our government to maintain a 
magnificent university. This assumutiou is the 
foundation upon which rest/ the ambitious pro- 
jects before us, and many similar schemes. Let, 
me try to demonstrate that the foundation is itself 
ui.sonnd. 

The general notion that a beneficent govern- 
ment should provide and control an elaborate or- 
ganization for teaching, .just as it maintains an 
aimy, a navy or a post-cilice, is of European ori- 
gin, being a legitimate corollary to the theory of 
tovernment by Divine right. It is said that the 
State is a person having a conscience and a in >ral 
responsibility; thai the government is the visible 
representative of a people's civilization, and the 
guardian of its honor and its morals, and should 
) e the embodiment of all that is high ano good in 
the people's character and aspirations. This moral 
peison. this corporate repiesentative of a Chris- 
tian ration, has high dnt'es and functions com- 
mensurate with its great powers, and none more 
imi ei ative tbun that of diflusmg knowledge and 
advancing science. ' 

1 desire to state this argument for the conduct of 
high educational institutions by government, as a 
maiter of abstract duty, with all tbe force which 
belongs 10 it; lor under aii endless variety of tbm 
dn-nurses, and with all sorts of amplifications and 
dilutions, it is a staple commodity with writers 
upon the relation of government to education. 



Ine conception ot government upon wl 
amumentis nased is obsolescent everywhere, lu 
a tree community the government dies not hold 
this parental, or patriarchal— I should better say 
Godlike— position. Our government is a group of 
servants appointed to do certain uifflcult aud im- 
poitant work. It is not the guardian of the na- 
tion's moials; it does not necessarily represent 
ibe best virtue of the republic, aud is not responsi- 
ble for the national character, oeing itself one of 
the products of that character. The doctrine of 
Siate personality and couscience, and the whole 
argument to the dignity and moral elevation of 
a Christian nation's government as the basis of 
government duties, are natural enough under 
Grace of God governments, but they find no 
ar> undof practical application to modern republi- 
can confederations; they have no bear- 
ing on governments considered as purely 
human agencies with defined powers 
and limited responsibilities. Moreover, tor 
most Americans these arguments prove a greats. 
deaJ,wB*mucb; for if they have the least tendency 
to persuade us that government should direct any 
part of secular education, with how xuuch greater 
force do tbey apply to the conduct by government 
of the religious education of the people. These 
propositions are indeed the main arguments for an 
e?tablisbed church. Keligion is the supreme hu- 
man interest, government is the m;>reuje human 
organization; therefore government ought to take 
care for religion, and a Christian noverument 
stould maintain distinctively Christian religious 
institulioiis. This is not theory aloue; it is the 
pravlice of all Christendom, except in America and 
Switzerland. Mow we do not admit it to be our 
duty to establish a national church. We believe 
not only that our people are more religious than 
many nations which have established churches, but 
als i that they are far more religious under tueir 
own voluntary system than they would be under 
any government establishment of religion. Wedo 
not acmit for amoment thai establishment or no 
establishment is synonymous with national 
piety or impiety. Now, if a beneficent Chris- 
tian government may lightly leave the people 
to provide themselves with religious institutions, 
surely it mav leave them to provide suitable uni- 
versities for the education of their youth. And 
here again the question of national university or 
no national university is by no means synonymous 
with the question— Shall the country have good 
university education or not'/ The only question is, 
shall we nave a university supported and con- 
trolled ty government, or shall we continue to rely 
upon universities supported and controlled by 
other agencies? 

There is then no foundation whatever for the as- 
sumption that it is the duty of our government to 
establish a national university. I venture to state 
one broad reason why our government should not 
establish and maintain a university. If the peo- 
ple of the United States have any special destiny, 
any pecu'iar function in the world, it is to try to 
work out under extraordinarily favorable circum 
stances the problem of free institutions for a 
heterogeneous, rich, multitudinous population 
spread over a vast territory. We indeed want to 
breed scholars, artists, poets, historians, novel- 
ists, ergmeers, physicians, jurists, theologians 
and orators; but, first of all, we want to breed 
a race of independent, self-reliant freemen, 
capable of helping, guiding and governing 
themselves. Now the habit of being 
helped by tbe government, even if it be to things 
good in themselves -to churches, universities and 
railroads— is a most insidious aud irresistible ene- 
rnv of republicanism; for the very essence of re- 
publicanism is self-reliance. With the continen- 
tal nations of Europe it is an axiom that the gov- 
ernment is to do everything, and is responsible for 
everything. The French have no word for "public 
spirit," for the reason that the sentiment is un- 
known to them. This abject dependence ou the 
government is an accursed inheritance from the 
dajs of the divine right of kings. Americans, on 
i tlie contrary, maintain precisely the opposite 
! theory, namely, that government is to do nothing 
not expressly assigned it to do, that it is to per- 
foim no function which any private agency cau 
peiloimaswell, and that it is not to do a public 



good even, unless that good be otherwise unat- 
tainable. It is- hardly coo much to say that this 
doctrine is tbe foundation of ourpublic liberty. So 
long as tbe people are really free tbey will main- 
tain it m tbeorv and in praciiee. During the war 
oi tbe rebellion we got accustomed to seeing tbe 
government spend vast sums of raoueyandput 
> forth vast efforts, aud we asked ourselves 
1 why should not somej of those great, 
i resources aud powers be applied to works of peace, 
to creation as well as to destruction? so we sub- 
6idizeo raihoads aud steamship companies, an I 
agricultural colleges, and now it is proposed to 
subsidize a university, ibe fatal objection to this 
subsidizing process is that it saps the foundations 
of public liberty. The only adequate securities ot 
public liberty are the national uabits, traditions 
at.d character acquired and accumulated in the 
practice of liberty aud self-control. Interrupt 
• these traditions, bieik up these habits or cultivate 
| the opposite ones, or poison that national ehar.ic- 
! ter, and public liberty will suddenly be found de- 
fenceless. Yfe deceive ourselves dangerously 
when we think or speak as If education, whether 
primary or university, could guaiantee republicau 
institutions. Educatiou can oo no such thing. A 
republican people should indeed be educated aud 
intelligent fbut it by no means follows that an ed- 
ucated and intelligent people will be republican. 
Do 1 seem to conjure up iwaginarj evils to follow 
from this beneficent establishment of a superb 
national university? We teachers should be the 
last people to forget the sound advice— obsta pnn- 
cipiis. A drop of water will put out a spark which 
otherwise would have kindled a conflagration tint 
rivers could not quench. 

Let us cling fast to the genuine American meth- 
od,— the old Massachusetts method— in the mat- 
ter of public instruction. Tbe essential features 
of that system are local taxes for universal ele- 
mentary education voted by the citizens them- 
selves, local elective boards to spend the money 
raised by taxation and control the schools, and for 
the hiuher grades of instruction permanent endow- 
ments administered by incorporated bodies of 
trustees. This is the American voluntary syste 11, 
in sharp contrast with the military, despotic or- 
ganization of public instruction wnich prevails tn 
Prussia and most other states of continental Eu- 
rope. Both systems have peculiar advantages, the 
crowning advantage of the American metJod 
being that it breeos freemen. Our ancestors well 
undei stood the principle that to make a people 
free and self-reliant, it is necessary to let them 
takecaieof themselves, even if they do not take 
quite as good care of themselves as some superior 
power might. 

And now, finally, let us ask what should make a 
university at the capital of the United States, es- 
tablisheoandsuppcrted by the general government, 
more national than any other American univer- 
sity. It might be larger and richer than any other, 
and it might not be : but certainly it could not 
have a monopoly of patriotism or of catholicity, 
or of literary or scientific enthusiasm, .there is 
an attractive comprehensiveness and a suggestion 
of public spirit and love of country in the term 
"national"; but after all the adjective only nar- 
rows and belittles the noble conception contained 
in tbe word "university." Letters, science, art, 
philosophy, medicine, law and theology are larger 
and more enduring than nations, these is some- 
thing childish in this uneasy hankering for a big 
university in America, as there is also in that im- 
patient longing for a distinctive American litera- 
ture which we so olteu bear expressed. As 
American life grows more various and richer in 
sentiment, passion, thought and accumulate 1 ex- 
perience, American liteiature will become richer 
aud more abounding, and in that better day let us 
hope that there will be found several universities 
in America, though by no means one in each State, 
as free, liberal, rich, national and glorious as tie 
warmest advocate of a single, crowning university 
at tie national capital could Imagine his desired 
institution to become. 



<&, 



** CL 



(^ cvtCZZ-t^'iJll 



• A NATIONAL UNiVEllSITT. 

Tbe address of President Eliot of Harvard 
College befoie tbe American Educational Asso- 
ciation on tbe scbeuie of a national university 
will attract tbe attention of all educators. It 
is a tboiougb exposure of the weakness of 
tbe movement so far as it bas been devel- 
oped, and ot tbe weakness of tbe theory 
upon which it is based. So sharp aud fatal a 
puncturing of a plausible sophistry is seldom 
made, and we do cot think tbe body before 
which it was delivered will care to be louger 
identified with a movement in favor of wbich 
little that partakes of reason or sound views, 
touching either government or educatiou, 
can be said. It is a matter of public con- 
gratulation that President Eliot was 
able to show that the Educational 
Association is hardly responsible, except 
in the way of easy, good-natured -tol- 
eration, for the scheme which certain 
members have endeavored to launch with its 
approval. It is not mucb to the credit of this 
association that it bas lent its ceuntenance, 
even to the extent it has done, to the foolish 
pioposiiion ; and if it knows what is becom- 
ing and what makes for its own reputation 
among intelligent Americans, it will retreat 
as gracefully as possible. Theie is not a worse 
fallacy than this which assumes that tbe gov- 
ernment is in any respect bouud to provide 
the means of university education, that the 
government of a republic is a kind of profes- 
sional school-master, standing in loco parentis 
to all the youth of tbe nation. The govern- 
ment has one" duty to see that means are pro- 
vided for imparting such a degree of educa- 
tion to every child as shall qualify him for an 
intellisent performance of. the simple duties 
of a fiee citizen. It has no concern to edu- 
cate them for lawyers, or clergymen, or phy- 
sicians, or farmers, or chemists, or statesmen, 
or journalists, or merchants, or for any other 
of the thousand aud one spscialties by which. 
men make their living or their fame. 

The wonder is that, in these days of appli- 
cation for government aid, the Crispius have 
not besought Congress for an appropriation 
of public land or bonds for the establisbment 
of a Great National Brogau Manufactory at 
the seat of government, to illustrate the ad- 
vantages of short hours and higb wages. 



Should the professors of agricultural colleges 
ever get what they want, we may confidently 
look for the establishment of a model plauta- 
tion in the vicinity of Washington, to be 
run by a veteran reserve corps of 
ambitious theorists, for whom there 
is not occupation in the class-rooms of State 
agricultural colleges. Or it might be used as 
an asylum for students who have learned how 
to cultivate potatoes at a loss in some of the 
tributary eleemosynary colleges. Whoever 
has much acquaintance with the condition of 
the country knows that we aie about as 
much in want of a national college of tailor- 
ing, an* hsuse-building, and pork-slaughter- 
ing, and bookkeeping, and railway manage- 
ment, as of agriculture and the mechanic arts. 
Nor is thtre any doubt whatever that each of 
these interests has quite as guod a claim on 
the fostering liberality of the government as 
any other department of business. In pres- 
ence of the Miller's Kiver nuisance who will 
presume to affirm that the business ot slaugh- 
tering animals has reached- the degree of 
aesthetic and utilitarian innocuousness that 
might be attained if governuent schools were 
established, where the aspiring butcher and 
Tenderer might be taught by professors nom- 
inated by the member of Congress for the 
district, and practised in model slaughter- 
houses ? It is safe to say that the proportion 
of citizens to whom it is a matter of happi- 
ness to be well dressed is larger than of those 
who desire to enter the learned professions 
or even to become scientific agriculturists. 
Why should there not be a national college 
of tailoring, aud nest to it a national college 
of dressmaking and millinery? The possi- 
bilities of human culture are yet but narrowly 
apprehended by our zealous subsidy pleaders. 
We counsel the industrial classes to watch 
this matter, and not suffer a bill for a naiioual 
university to pass with provision for only 
ten faculties. Ten faculties for the great 
American Natioual University ! The inade- 
quacy of the scheme is one of its most aston- 



ishing features. If government is going into 
this business it should do the thing hand- 
somely. No discriminations in favor of head- 
work must be tolerated. Where is the grand 
army of working-men ? Let them look to it 
that the public lands are not exclusively ap- 
propriated by the non-producing classes. A 
demand for national working-men's colleges 
wouldn't be out of place in the labor party's 
platform. 

It was a grievous blunder on the part of 
the national government that this business of 
subsidizing professional schools was ever be- 
gun. We do not begrudge any reasonable 
appropriation, whether of money or land, for 
fostering public schools, but this also ought 
to be of the Dature of aid and encouragement 
rather than of endowment. Everything we 
see leads us to suspect that there will be in 
Washington this winter another aud more 
numerous lobby of scientific and agricultural 
college presidents and professors. It would 
be a good thing for the people to give them 
and the members of Congress now at home 
some positive knowledge that any measure 
i like that concocted and nearly successful last 
' winter is not approved. We have no enmity 
to agricultural schools, or scientific schools, 
or technical schools, or schools of any of the 
practical arts, but we do say that they are 
not the affair of the national government. 
And we object with all strenuousness to the 
dangerous notion that the national govern- 
ment is under any obligation to foster them 
by subsidies, however useful they might prove. 
The paper by President Eliot is explicit and 
forcible on this point. It deserves attention 
as the mature thought of one of the foremost 
educators of the country, and we hope its 
cogent reasoning may have wide publicity, 
particularly at this time when legislators are 
so weakly wiUing to give heed to every 
sounding profession of zeal for the public 
welfare that looks to the public treasury for 
its resources. 




LIBRARY OF C0 NGR E SS 

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